Fish Flowers & Fragrant Corpses

The goldfish plant (Nematanthus gregarius) is still blooming! Once it got going last summer, it never stopped. It's always got at least a couple of blooms on at any given time. Today there are a dozen or so. I frequently take cuttings from this plant, as they root extremely fast in a glass of water and they make pretty darned good houseplants. They don't seem to be picky about light or water and they put up with a lot of neglect. Now to see if I can get the babies to bloom ...

Meanwhile, I have a new garden-themed Halloween decoration! Hemlock's Nursery is the "home of rare and exotic, carnivorous plants." The dead branches that I put in the background were pruned from a rosemary plant (Rosmarinus officinalis) that is probably suffering from being pot-bound in its outdoor container. Even dead and defoliated, the rosemary branches give off a lovely scent when you touch them. Mmm ... fragrant corpses.

Do you do any garden-related decorating for Halloween?

Take Me Back to the Bark & Garden Center!

Hubby and I went to the Bark & Garden Center in Olympia, yesterday. I can't believe I'd never been there before. It's so big! And open year-round, seven days a week. Bliss! I went looking for Golden Creeping Jenny, a popular trailing groundcover that seemed perfect for a container combination I'm working on. I was pleased to find exactly what I was looking for, plus copper plant tags and an orchid pot. It was nearing closing time when we arrived and we were already tired from other shopping, so we didn't stick around long enough to see even half of what they had to offer. Sigh.

This morning while cooking breakfast I found myself singing these words (to the tune of Take Me Back to Toyland):

Please take me back to the Bark & Garden Center
I'm so much happier there
It's more than a lark at the garden center
Where dreams, just like plants, can be shared

Shoppy-shop-shopping!

Yesterday's little haul was pretty sweet. The groundcovers were about three bucks apiece. Not a fantastic price, but pretty typical. I bought the plant tags for labeling tall bearded iris rhizomes. In addition to copper tags, they had zinc and wood and plastic in several sizes. The orchid pot is a five-incher that seemed the right size for one of the oncidium orchids I recently bought at Trader Joe's.

I just love garden-related shopping. Hubby and I spent an entire day at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in February. We got there hours before opening time and we stayed until my eyes had glazed over and my legs were actually giving out. I'm so hard-core.

If I can go back to the Bark & Garden Center
With its acres of plants to see
All my day would be spent at the garden center
What a wonderful day that would be